Born in Fire
by MyShipsinStormySeas
Summary: What if Pepper and Tony lived in a world of fairytales and magic and royalty? Would they be the same people and face the same battles? Will they still survive? Read this fairytale/fantasy au to find out! Written for Pepperony Week 2019


Notes: This is for the last day of Pepperony Week 2019, prompt: au. It's a little late cause real life got in the way and took precedence but better late than never right?

Anyway, hopefully this'll be a fun last installment to Pepperony Week from me. Also don't worry, along with this I will keep updating my other in-progress fic: "After Life After Death." Meanwhile, hope you enjoy the following!

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**Chapter 1: Once Upon a Time**

Once upon a time, there was a small but plentiful kingdom between what today is modern-day Turkey and modern-day Russia.

The kingdom was really rather tiny, but the land was fertile, fruit and vegetables grew in abundance and the kingdom was practically self-sufficient. Wherever fruits and vegetables didn't grow, the inhabitants found deep deposits of clay just below the surface, which they mined continuously. The mining served a secondary purpose as well, in that the people of this land carved out cities in the hills for themselves, well hidden and difficult to attack. There were rumors of monsters and fire to be found if you dug too far deep, but the people didn't worry overly about them. They were a practical people, centered in the world of what you could see and touch and smell in front of you.

Due to the profusion of available clay, many of the inhabitants long ago grew to be talented potters. They created both art and a wide variety of household items using the clay. The beauty of the objects gained a reputation in the neighboring kingdoms, to the point where people would travel from far and wide to come and purchase the potters' art. Soon, their art became synonymous in people's minds with the country itself, until the kingdom came to be known by a new name.

The kingdom was called Potts.

Not long after the kingdom gained worldwide artistic renown, a new king and queen came to the throne. The queen, before marrying the heir to the throne, had come from fairly humble beginnings and knew how to be practical, frugal, and in general manage the kingdom's newfound wealth. She wished for it to be thoughtfully used and invested, not wasted and thrown away before it could do any good. She dreamed of one day sharing her skills with a daughter, but the couple had yet to have a child.

Life seemed almost perfect, with a new heir on the way and the kingdom prospering. Everything would have been perfect if not for the king's younger brother, Prince Obadiah. He was disliked by the people generally for his arrogant and scornful opinions, openly considering himself superior to the common people of the kingdom. He'd been known for drinking at local gatherings and causing trouble, pitting one man against another and sitting back to watch the outcome. The king and his brother had never been close.

After some thought, the king convinced Prince Obadiah to go abroad for a while, and explore the world outside of Potts. Surprisingly enough, the brother quickly managed to gain favor with a certain Prince Howard, heir to the throne of the Persian Empire, and gained a place in his inner circle. Satisfied with Prince Obadiah's success and feeling content that his brother was no longer stirring up trouble, the king of Potts turned his focus solely to his own kingdom, leaving his brother to his own devices. He really should have known better.

The kingdom thrived, and the couple were happy, but as the years went by, their happiness gained a tinge of sadness. Though they'd tried, the queen had yet to produce an heir to the throne. She had really wished for a daughter.

The queen was watching the glow from the potters' kilns one evening, thinking of all she was glad for and all she still wished for.

The stars came out, one by one as she watched, until one raced across the sky so fast that if she'd blinked she would have missed it.

Seeing the shooting star brought back memories of her childhood, of stories about how any wish on a shooting star would come true if you just believed it.

The queen knew better than to trust that nonsense, but that night she was feeling nostalgic. The stars overhead and the still-burning kilns gave a magical glow to the evening and it was one of those moments where it feels like anything is possible.

Just in case, the queen wished on her star, "I wish to have a daughter with hair as red as the brick kilns, with a mind as quick as a shooting star, and a spirit as free as the smoke that rises between the two.

Nine months later, the queen gave birth to a daughter, with hair as red as the brick kilns. The daughter's quick mind and free spirit would develop as she got older.

It was that day that Crown Princess Virginia of the kingdom of Potts was born.

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More Notes: Honestly not sure what to rate this work. Let me know if you think I need to up the rating for later chapters.

It's gonna get darker before it gets better, and some of it is based on themes from the original Grimms' fairytales (they're usually way more messed up than the Disney ones)

On the other hand, I don't think it's gonna go darker than the MCU movies, which have some seriously dark themes if you think about it.

Either way, I hope you enjoy it and that it's a good and engaging story!

More chapters to come!


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